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The Digital Universe Atlas, a scientifically accurate 3D atlas of the known universe assembled and maintained by scientists at the Museum’s Hayden Planetarium, gives audiences the chance to “fly” through space. On Tuesday, November 29, Digital Universe Manager Brian Abbott and research scientist Jackie Faherty will lead the Grand Tour of the Universe.The program, which starts at 6:30 pm, willtake viewers to nearby stars, exoplanets, and the most distant objects known in the cosmos, revealing where Earth is in the universe and how it came to be. Abbott recently answered a few questions about his experiences presenting in the Dome.

This Saturday, November 26, NASA will launch its biggest, most advanced rover yet: the one-ton Curiosity, a mobile laboratory with a two-year mission to find out whether Mars has ever supported life. See a life-sized model of Curiosity in the Museum’s new exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration,then explore how Mars might be transformed into a more hospitable planet with an interactive terraforming table.

In a corner of the exhibition The World’s Largest Dinosaurs, an elegant wire outline of the head of Diplodocus longus, a sauropod that lived in the Late Jurassic period about 156 million years ago, anchors a fascinating fossil: one half of a bony braincase, its interior carefully color-coded to denote various functional structures once within it.

On the morning of Monday, November 21, the Origami Holiday Tree was lit in the first-floor Grand Gallery by the 77th Street exit. The display pays tribute to some of the Museum’s “biggest and best” displays, with ornaments that include a blue whale, highlights from The World’s Largest Dinosaurs, and a space shuttle as a nod to the Museum’s latest special exhibition, Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration. Celebrating sheer size and scope, these origami models represent some of the largest natural and cultural exhibits on display throughout the Museum. Watch the video or flip through the slideshow below to preview a few of the ornaments. The tree is on view now until Monday, January 2.

Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration offers a vision of the future of space travel as it boldly explores our next steps in our solar system and beyond. Future missions highlighted in Beyond Planet Earth—once limited to the realm of science fiction but today discussed by leading scientists and engineers—include building a space elevator on the surface of the Moon, deflecting a hazardous near-Earth asteroid, traveling to Mars—and perhaps even establishing colonies there.